Mr. Casey complains about many in his generation not being able to find jobs, that "the prospects for intergenerational mobility are fading fast," that they will be burdened with Social Security and Medicare payments for baby boomers, and that baby boomers will "deplete" the wealth of Gen Y.

The European traveller from the States, who is not a Croesus, speedily finds himself reduced to a chronic state of self-conscious sordidness by the hordes of cringing robbers who clutter his steps from dawn till dark, and deplete his pocket-book in a way that puts compound interest to the blush.